Japanese lawmaker stabbed to death

A campaigning Japanese lawmaker was stabbed to death outside his home Friday in what Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi condemned as an intolerable "assassination."

Koki Ishii, a member of the opposition known for exposing corruption and wasteful government spending, was attacked outside his home in western Tokyo by a lone assailant using a 30-centimeter (12-inch) blade.

There was no immediate indication whether the killing was politically motivated, but if it proves to be, it would be Japan's first political assassination in more than 40 years.

The 61-year-old was about to get into his chauffeur-driven car at 1015 a.m. when the attacker struck.

The assailant, who appeared to be around 50 years old, quietly walked up to Ishii and stabbed him with a Japanese-style fish-filleting knife in the jaw, hands and left side of his chest, reports said. The knife was found at the scene.

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) politician's Russian wife Natasha rushed out of the couple's home in Tokyo's affluent Setagaya Ward and screamed for help.

Officials at the National Tokyo Medical Center, where Ishii was taken, said that doctors officially pronounced Ishii dead at 12:05 p.m. Reports said he suffered massive hemorrhaging from a wound that reached from a lung to his heart.

The killer was wearing a gray jacket with a red bandana on his head, one report said, quoting police sources.

Neighbors said the man had been seen loitering outside Ishii's house more than 90 minutes before the attack, according to one report.

The killing drew outraged condemnation from Prime Minister Koizumi, who said he was "enraged."

"In any situation, we must not allow suppression of political activities by violence. Assassinations cannot be tolerated," Koizumi told reporters. "I am enraged by this."